She busied herself with heating water and prepping a bowl with crushed elonia. “This will sting, but not as badly as a few days ago.” She dipped a clean cloth into the bowl.
He tilted his head, confused.
She gently pressed the cloth to his shoulder, starting at the top of the wound. “You probably don’t remember. I did it when you first got here, and every twelve hours since,” she explained. “You lost a lot of blood. It’s natural for your mind to shut off when your body goes through trauma.”
He hissed through his teeth and gripped the edge of the table as she dabbed the cloth against the wound. It was mostly healed now; just a faint pink cut was left of the once-gaping wound.
Once she was satisfied the wound was clean, she busied herself with brewing a cup of rhodiola for him. She could feel his eyes on her, the heat of his stare prickling the back of her neck.
When she turned back toward him, he inhaled deeply, and a faint smile tugged at his lips.
“To calm any lingering nerves,” she explained, carefully handing the cup to him.
His fingers brushed against hers as he took it, and she could’ve sworn his cheeks burned red for a moment when they touched.
Something flickered in his eyes—a look of appreciation and something else she couldn’t quite place.
“You’re as brilliant of a healer as I knew you’d be,” he said quietly.
She felt a crack in her heart, the tiniest sliver chipping away at the wall she had built around it.
The corners of her mouth twitched up. “And you’re as stubborn of a soldier as I thought you’d be.”
Twenty-Five
Evelina
Evelina didn’t cry often.She often buried her emotions deep within her heart and focused on what needed to be done. It was something she had long since learned to do as a healer. A patient needed her to be strong for them. If they were scared and in pain, she needed to be their rock so they remained calm while she tended to their wounds. She would put on her healer face and focus on the task at hand.
But the night Daimon was finally strong enough to go back to his own cabin, no longer in need of a healer to watch over him, she cried for hours. All the memories of them together before the war slammed into her. She had missed him—so much that it hurt every corner of her soul. Seeing him look so much like his old self flung the floodgates wide open. She cried herself to sleep, the memory of his soft laugh ringing in her ears.
The following morning wasn’t much better. Evelina’s eyes were puffy from crying, her throat sore.
She needed to pull herself together before Daimon got here. He was due any minute for a morning check-in to ensure his wound was still healing properly.
To busy her hands and soothe her racing thoughts, she made three cups of rhodiola tea. She ladled water from the melted snow bucket and poured it into a small kettle. Gloriana had already started the fire, the rhythmic crackle of it helping ease the tension in Evelina’s shoulders.
She’d meant to move over toward the herb shelf to do something productive, but she found herself staring into the fire, unable to look away. Her mind drifted to old memories, trying to reconcile the boy she once knew with the stone-faced soldier he had become.
It wasn’t until she found herself sipping the last dregs of her tea that she realized Daimon should’ve been here by now. She grabbed a satchel filled with tinctures and bandages, her pulse fluttering faster. She pushed open a creaking shutter next to the hearth, finding the sun had risen higher than she thought.
He was late—Damion, the soldier who seemed to stick to a strict routine and value order. She pushed through the front door of the cabin, the morning air crisp on her face.
Brielle was lacing a tear in a pair of her riding leathers outside of Alpha Fleet’s cabin. She looked up at Evelina as she approached, a soft smile on her face.
“Have you seen Daimon?” Evelina adjusted the strap on her shoulder, small jars clinking with the movement.
Brielle hiked her thumb over her shoulder, gesturing to the cabin behind her. “Hasn’t come out of his room yet.”
Evelina nodded, hesitating. She needed to check his wound. He likely needed extra sleep from the amount of healing his body had been doing, but it still made her breath hitch. She had to see for herself it wasn’t something more than that.
“Come on,” Brielle said, standing and brushing dirt from her legs. “Everyone else is up. Ranick and Elias are on morning patrol.”
Even though it had been her goal all along, Evelina still paused a little too long before the door to the cabin. She had been closer to Daimon than ever here at the camp, but still. This was…closer.
She squeezed the strap on her satchel until her knuckles turned white.He’s a patient that just needs to be checked on, Evelina chided herself.There’s nothing to be nervous about.
Brielle grunted and Evelina startled, embarrassed. She took a deep breath, then followed her into the cabin.
